An attempt to make a difference

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Month: May 2017

This is my first blog post. I hope I do justice to the ideologies that my professors have instilled in me during my grad years.

So this one’s gonna be about “heteronormativity.” Big word, eh? Well, I thought so too, the first time I learned about it. But gradually it became so simple to understand, all thanks to the way its meaning was communicated. There’s a reason why I chose to write about this for my first blog, and that’s because this was one of the first few discussions in my first semester of studying literature (while discussing “Lihaaf,” Ismat Chughtai) that completely transformed my perception towards the society we co-exist with. Our society wants us to “act” in a certain way, because those are the “norms” created by who? Society! Our society wants us to dress up in a certain way, portray ourselves in a certain way. Well, if that wasn’t enough, it wants us to also “have sex” in a certain way! It provides us with a prescribed manual of who to have sex with (the opposite gender), why to have sex (to make a baby), and when to have sex (after marriage, duh!).

Let’s talk about the social norm projected for human beings. We are homo-sapiens, yet, we are supposed to be “heterosexuals.” Do you spot the irony here? How “homo” and “hetero” simultaneously describe us? Well, that’s not all the irony that exists. Have you noticed the contradiction that how if you’re attracted towards the “opposite sex,” you’re straight? Last time I checked, didn’t “straight” mean going in the same direction? But when it comes to sex, it means being a hetero. *Slow claps for society.* We know what you did there! You just changed the meaning of words as per your convenience.

Now moving on to the word “gay.” When did the word, which means “happy,” start emanating such a negative connotation? How confused are we? Why can’t gays be a regular part of the society? Just because they don’t reproduce? How dumb are we to notice how that will be such a huge favor to everyone? How being heterosexual has led to the population of the world being more than 7.5 Billion? That’s a mammoth number to cater to. Aren’t all the world problems augmenting due to population growth? Can’t we just be thankful to homosexuals for getting out of the closet, and encourage more to do so?

Not only the world is affected, but imagine how damaging it can be for a person to be with a woman, when every nerve in his body is telling him to kiss the man he’s attracted to and share his life with him. I remember watching Brokeback Mountain, and thinking how the protagonists Ennis and Jack not only live their lives in suffering, but also inflict that pain on their respective partners of the opposite sex.

You got no fuckin idea how bad it gets. I’m not you. I can’t make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. You’re too much for me. Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you.

—Jack Twist, Brokeback Mountain

Not only this, when I watched Moonlight, I realized how difficult it is to grow up with your inhibitions and being mocked and bullied over and over again for who you are.

Therefore, all I want to say is:

Dear Society,

Your norms are the greatest disaster to the world. High time you start realizing it. You need to grow up, look around, and analyze what’s best for us as human beings. Only then, you and I can co-exist!